Bethlehem

The Israeli army's new tourism campaign wants you to visit Palestine — just don't call it that. The Israeli military launched a truly bizarre rendition of a Visit Palestine tourism campaign over the weekend. Except the army couldn’t bring itself to say Palestine, the West Bank, or even mention that Palestinians live there. The video was published on the Facebook page of the IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military government that oversees the occupation of the Palestinian territories. The video mentions sites like Wadi Qelt, the Mar Saba Monastery and Nabi Musa, sites in the…

I can no longer remain silent as many in the Jewish establishment continue to support the occupation, publicly reject the Movement for Black Lives, and remain silent on Trump. By Jenn Pollan Four years ago on a 100 degree day, I sat on the porch of a home in Bethlehem while a Palestinian man named Samer pointed to the Israeli settlements that surrounded his home. As he spoke Samer fiddled with a small cross necklace I previously failed to noticed he was wearing. When he saw I was looking at the necklace, he paused and said with an almost alarming casualness: “This is…

On Nakba Day, activists build a symbolic train to bring Palestinian refugees back to their homes in what is today Israel. Photos and text by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org Hundreds of Palestinians gathered outside the Bethlehem-area Dheisheh Refugee Camp on an unseasonably hot Sunday, Nakba Day, in order to board and accompany a symbolic “Return Train” meant to take Palestinian refugees back to their homes and villages from which they fled and were expelled in 1948. Dheisheh is home to thousands of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from some 45 villages and cities in what is now the state of Israel.…

Hanan al-Hroub wins global teaching prize worth one million dollars at the height of a mass strike by Palestinian teachers for higher salaries and better terms. Hanan al-Hroub, a Palestinian teacher from Bethlehem, won $1 million for her work promoting nonviolence through learning on Sunday night. Al-Hroub, who teaches in both the West Bank city of al-Bireh and Dheisheh refugee camp, was given the second annual Global Teacher prize at a ceremony in Dubai. Palestinian television stations broadcasted the competition, along with the celebrations that took place in Ramallah following the announcement. [tmwinpost] Over 8,000 teachers from across the world competed…

For the third time in the past two months, Israeli and Palestinian activists march on West Bank checkpoint to call for an end to the ongoing violence. Photos and text by Oren Ziv / Activestills.org Over 200 Israelis and Palestinians marched on the Israeli army’s “tunnels checkpoint” south of Jerusalem Friday to demonstrate against the occupation and the ongoing violence in the country. The protesters began marching from the Husan junction on Route 60 — the southern West Bank’s main north-south artery that connects Jerusalem, Beit Jala, the Gush Etzion settlements, and Hebron — while chanting slogans against the occupation…

Read the previous chapters of The Long Road to Bethlehem here. Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” begins in Gaza. I am consumed by the news. I scroll through Twitter with the television on, flipping between Al Jazeera and CNN. Horrifying images stream out of the Strip. Rubble. Bodies. Crowds around hospitals. People running, carrying limp loved ones. Shujaiyah. When I can’t take it anymore, I turn off the TV, leave my phone inside, and go to the garden. I realize how fortunate I am to be able to “take a break” from the war — even if that break is somewhat…

Despite their difficult circumstances, Palestinians in Bethlehem find ways to remind the world that Israel's occupation cannot exist forever. The organizers of the Palestine Marathon, held annually in the West Bank city of Bethlehem since 2013, recently announced that its next run will take place on Friday 1st April, 2016. [tmwinpost] The event – one my most memorable highlights of 2015 – is a thrilling experience. The thousands that gathered in Manger Square, where the run kicks off, included Muslim and Christian Palestinians, internationals from dozens of foreign countries, and even some Israeli Jews. Some came to support the marathon’s…

Why does America's largest Christian Zionist organization continue to ignore the plight of its co-religionists in Jesus' birthplace? Text and photos by Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org Happy birthday, Jesus! Once again, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), America’s largest Zionist organization of any kind, has used “Made in Israel” Christmas ornaments the centerpiece of its holiday fundraising campaign while bashing the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. In a December email campaign in the weeks preceding Christmas, CUFI’s leaders declared: Israel’s enemies are also our enemies, and they are mounting an aggressive campaign on all fronts to cause innocents harm, especially during…

As 2015 comes to a close, +972 Magazine’s editors and bloggers look back at the year that was, and share the articles that most resonated with them – in no particular order. By +972 Magazine Staff Meet the new generation of Palestinians in Israel To most Jewish Israelis they don’t have names or faces. At worst they are rioters and stone-throwers waving Palestinian flags; at best they are a discriminated-against minority. Henriette Chacar sat down with four young, prominent, politically active Palestinian citizens of Israel to discuss their demands, their identity, how they are different than the generations that preceded them,…

Protesters held up posters with messages such as 'For Christmas I want every Palestinian child back home.' By Anne Paq and Mustafa Bader / Activestills.org A week before Christmas, Palestinians dressed up as Santa Claus marched toward the separation wall in Bethlehem last Friday, where they clashed with Israeli Border Police. The protesters chanted slogans and held up posters with messages such as "For Christmas I want every Palestinian child back home," in reference to the children who have been arrested by Israeli soldiers over the past two months. The nonviolent Santa Claus march was dispersed with tear gas, after…

Violence reignites across Israel-Palestine on Thursday as four Israelis and one Palestinian are killed in two separate attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank. The two attackers, both West Bank Palestinians, are apprehended. Four Israelis and one Palestinian were killed in two separate attacks on both sides of the Green Line Thursday afternoon. Several others were wounded in both incidents. In the first attack, a 36-year-old Palestinian stabbed several Israelis outside a synagogue in south Tel Aviv, killing one and injuring two, one of whom later died from his wounds. The two victims were named as Yesiev Aharon, 32,…

Mubarak Awad, one of the main organizers of nonviolent resistance during the First Intifada until Israel exiled him, talks about why only nonviolence can defeat the occupation, how Palestinians must convince Israelis that peace is their own interest, and his fears that without a new nonviolent movement more and more Palestinian youths will be drawn to armed resistance. By Waleed Shahid (First published in 'In These Times') The largest Palestinian uprising in the history of the Israeli occupation is largely forgotten today. In the 1980s, thousands of Palestinians took part in large-scale civil disobedience actions, strikes, pickets, boycotts and sit-ins…

Days after the army uprooted Palestinian-owned olive trees to pave the route of the separation barrier in Beit Jala, Christians and Muslims from the town hold a joint protest to try and put a stop to the plan. By Oren Ziv Hundreds of Muslim and Christian Palestinians protested Sunday morning in the West Bank town of Beit Jala against the future establishment of the separation wall that would cut them off from Jerusalem. Protesters marched Sunday toward the work zone where the wall is route is being paved, just days after the army uprooted dozens of ancient olive trees to pave…

About +972 Magazine

+972 is an independent, blog-based web magazine. It was launched in August 2010, resulting from a merger of a number of popular English-language blogs dealing with life and politics in Israel and Palestine.

+972 is an independent, blog-based web magazine. It was launched in August 2010, resulting from a merger of a number of popular English-language blogs dealing with life and politics in Israel and Palestine.